Plus so many ads are malware, dangerous, or scams that even the FBI says you should use an ad blocker

https://techcrunch.com/2022/12/22/fbi-ad-blocker/

YouTube is one of the worst offenders for scam ads. Even today you sometimes find an ad that talks about some scary health risk and points to some ad that drones on and on for 45 minutes and if you get to the end they try to sign you up for an $80 a month subscription for some worthless supplement.

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Sanzig 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

A deepfake version of Mark Carney keeps trying to get me to sign up for scam crypto exchanges. Clicking the report link does nothing.

With all the money that Google has plowed into AI, they clearly could solve this problem if they want to. The fact that it's still an issue means they don't care, or are happy to take the ad money from the fraudsters.

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mitthrowaway2 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

I'm seeing the same ad. There's no way that can be legal to broadcast.

	▲	AlexandrB 5 days ago \| parent [-]
		The problem is enforcement. Legal or not, it's extremely unlikely that law enforcement will pursue these kinds of scams.

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throwawayben 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

yeah I had a deep fake Kier Starmer tell me about some investment opportunity with guaranteed returns.

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mindslight 5 days ago | parent [-]

Where is the "ads are just a way of telling people about things they might want" crowd? heh.

	▲	PaulHoule 5 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I can make that argument wholeheartedly, not even as a “steelman” when it comes to legitimate advertising but so much of it is criminal, morally if not legally —- and the victim is not just the viewer but also the advertiser which is running ads that are completely mistargeted, that damage their brand, or get fraudulent clicks —- I remember the layout of anandtech always shifting around so you would try to click on a link and just before you did an ad would slide under your finger and ka-Ching! Was it by accident or design. On the other hand I’ve known people who sold ads for newspaper and radio and all of them had some sense of ethics.
	▲	rchaud 5 days ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		They live in the pages of an economics textbook, blissfully untethered from reality.
	▲	themafia 5 days ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		Right behind the "regulatory agencies are asleep at the switch" crowd. If you build /anything/ there will be people who dedicate time to learning how to abuse it for profit. We don't live in Narnia.
	▲	cjs_ac 5 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		An investment opportunity with guaranteed returns is something I would definitely want if it actually existed.

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bscphil 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I endorse the view that everyone should use an ad blocker, but for what it's worth I keep seeing this techcrunch article and the original advice offered by the FBI [1] is actually much more limited.

> Use an ad blocking extension when performing internet searches. Most internet browsers allow a user to add extensions, including extensions that block advertisements. These ad blockers can be turned on and off within a browser to permit advertisements on certain websites while blocking advertisements on others.

So the specific recommendation is that you turn on an ad blocker while performing searches. Why are they so concerned about searches? It's because of a specific form of fraud, where someone purchases an ad pretending to be the business you're searching for, but actually takes you "to a webpage that looks identical to the impersonated business’s official webpage" - that is, a phishing scam.

That's way more limited than the "FBI recommends ad blocker" statement would lead you to believe. From the FBI's point of view, pitching a bullshit supplement in an ad (what you're talking about) is an entirely legitimate business practice, and selling supplements is legal in the US so long as you don't make certain medical claims or imply FDA approval.

[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20221222162340/https://www.ic3.g...

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ikekkdcjkfke 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

I borrowed the phone of someone who is older to watch a facebook video in the app. In the middle of the video there was a video ad with sound playing, an amber alert for sound and a warning to click the link. The next ad after that one was also a warning that there was a virus and you needed to click the link

	▲	PaulHoule 5 days ago \| parent [-]
		In the age of A.I. blocking that kind of content should be easier than shooting fish in a bucket and the false positives should all be things the platform would be better off without.

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conductr 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

I think searches are just a common entry point to the internet at large. People search then they have some mistaken trust those links are legit.

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alex1138 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I see it as part of the same general package. The censoring for any reason at all (including real time, via AI, in the comments, which were already! ruined by Google+ integration going back years)

Youtube Rewind 2018 - before they got rid of dislikes, to make ad videos harder to spot - was one of (was the?) most disliked videos in Youtube history

A very far cry from the halcyon days of ~10 years earlier

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complianceowl 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

100%. I can't count the amount of times I've seen an AI-generated Elon Musk promoting a Tesla coin lol. I've lost count.